Infrastructure: Time for more than band aids

Workers try to repair a massive leak at the Amiss Water Purification Plant in Shreveport in this Jan. 10, 2008, image. File/The Times

After years of avoiding the inevitable, the Shreveport City Council will soon have the opportunity to initiate plans that will help move the city's often-troubled water and sewer infrastructure into a better position for the future.

The administration is planning to introduce a proposal at next week's meeting that would eventually increase water and sewer rates as well as updating the city's current utility law.

It's time our city moved forward on this issue.

No, we're not celebrating the proposed increase in water and sewer rates - paying more in hard economic times is never something one enjoys - but if it means fewer water main breaks and stops sewage from backing up into homes and buildings all over the city, then it will have been worth the added cost at the consumer level.

According to the proposal discussed during a committee meeting last week, the water rates would rise by 26 percent initially, followed by small increments between 2019 and 2022; sewer rates would rise 50 percent, also with smaller rises over the next eight years.

These decidedly unglamorous needs will require a measure of political courage on the part of council members because raising fees is never popular with voters; however, our city can no longer afford to kick this can down the road as we are truly running out of time. Literally, if we don't take action, the potential dramatically increases that Shreveport will face future environmental fines.

The city of Shreveport, as do most local government agencies, often places much fanfare around constructing massive public projects, but then fails to do a proper job of funding maintenance. Water and sewer systems are supposed to be self-sustaining through regular rate adjustments. However, current rates in Shreveport aren't anywhere near enough to touch upgrade/maintenance projects which have been mandated - yes mandated - as part of a developing consent decree the city has with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency that should be finalized by this summer.

The decree, of course, is the result of regular violations of the Clean Water Act due the city's aging infrastructure. Once the agreement is worked out, it will identify what in the system needs repairs and establish a timeline for those repairs to happen. If the city fails to make the noted repairs within the noted frame of time, we will face fines.

Currently, our city is looking at an estimated cost of $200 million (possibly more) for the repairs. Some of the projects will be paid using money from the bond issue passed in 2011, and an extra $5 million from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's Clean Water State Revolving Fund will fund other projects). But neither of those funding methods, nor the current rate structure will cover the entire cost of the needed repairs.

We believe this City Council knows it is time the city's water and sewer rates more accurately reflect what's needed to properly sustain the system already in place as well as the parts of the system that are growing; we also believe they know the time for action is upon us.

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Infrastructure: Time for more than band aids

After years of avoiding the inevitable, the Shreveport City Council will soon have the opportunity to initiate plans that will help move the city's often-troubled water and sewer infrastructure into